Child Homelessness in Florida
More than 83,900 children experience homelessness each year in Florida.
Children experiencing homelessness are sick four times more often than other children.
Homeless children go hungry at twice the rate of other children.
Children experiencing homelessness are four times more likely to show delayed development and twice as likely to have learning disabilities.
Children who are homeless experience a number of traumatic stressors that can lead to educational and developmental challenges.
What the Florida Legislature and State Government Can Do
- Ending child homelessness in Florida is urgent and possible. In April 2011, the Florida Campaign released the Florida Plan to End Child Homelessness. The following recommendations from the Florida Plan plan begin to lay the path towards preventing and ending child and family homelessness throughout the state:
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Expand the supply of affordable housing units for homeless families with children, survivors ofdomestic violence, and homeless youth by allocating all available funding generated for the Sadowski Housing Trust Fund to housing needs.
- Require Workforce Florida to increase employment for homeless parents and youth, train and place homeless specialists in the One Stop Centers, and link essential child care and transportation services to enable access to jobs that pay a livable wage.
- Develop state incentives for the private sector to create jobs that pay a livable wage, including tax credits to corporations hiring homeless parents and youth.
- Maintain funding for Homeless Housing Assistance Grants to create new, affordable housing and transitional shelter units.
For More Information
To read the Florida Plan to End Child Homelessness, visit www.HomelessChildrenAmerica.org or contact us at Campaign@familyhomelessness.org. The Florida Plan was also included the 2011 Florida Council on Homelessness Report to the Governor (www.dcf.state.fl.us/programs/homelessness).
About the Florida Campaign to End Child Homelessness
The Florida Campaign to End Child Homelessness seeks to galvanize the will necessary to end this crisis. Because it is unacceptable for any child to be homeless for even one night, the Florida Campaign to End Child Homelessness is a call to action with the goals of increasing public awareness, informing state and local policies, and improving programs and services to better address the needs of homeless children and families. The Florida Campaign is an initiative of the Campaign to End Child Homelessness at The National Center on Family Homelessness in partnership with the Florida Coalition for the Homeless.